Longevity Tips

By Art G Madlaing

Many people aspire for long life. With long life, one can achieve more, learn from and have time to correct mistakes and make living more colorful and meaningful. Some of the secrets of long life were practiced by my father Silvino's sister, Elena Gabot Madlaing, and I've witnessed in our barrio in Binalonan and in the many years that I have been coming back and forth to San Francisco and San Jose in California The same secrets of my aunt she may have inherited from my grandmother (Elena's mother) Bai Sil-lit ( Cecilia Mabini Sampayan Gabot) who reached the age of 113. Bai Sil-lit was industrious enterprising with her "bagoong" (fish sauce) making business keeping the brew in big "burnay " (clay pot) under and around her house and starting her own version of Divisoria market in our barrio Although she could well afford meat for her meals, "pinakbet"and mongo beans with fish or dried shrimps, ampalaya and malunggay leaves were her favorite and I used to join with that meal in that short span of time that I stayed in her house. Sometimes, she would pump the deep well in the "batalan" to get water for cooking and washing. I saw her regularly walk to the river to wash her clothes and take a bath. In her younger days, she taught me how to mill the palay with a pestle in her round or long wooden "lusong" and then winnow and clean the rice using a round bamboo "bilao." She was frugal and strict. She was a devout Catholic, keeping a rosary always in her waist, an image of the Miraculous Virgin Mary of Manaoag framed in wood and silver cross in her room in the house made of wood and bamboo.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0BMZ8K264
• ISBN13: 9798366203890
• Release Date: November 2022
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 356 Pages
• Weight: 0.88 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 1.0" x 6.0"